How Dare You Not Link To Me?

This is great...two pieces of spam from the same guy in one day...and I wrote up both of them. After you read this one, visit this page: Follow Up To This Spam

Well, I don't know how many copies of this particular piece of spam I've seen; they all have different subjects, and many of them point to different domains, but I somehow suspect they're all from the same guy, because aside from the subject and domain, they are in all other points entirely identical. Here's a copy...then I'll tell you about the amusing follow up email...

Dear Webmaster ,

I'm the webmaster of a songwriting website at [spammerwebsite].

I've collected quality links to other songwriting resources on the Internet on my links page.

I came across your site and feel that it'd perfectly fit in my collection of quality links about songwriting.

I've already placed a link to your web site along with a description at [spammerwebsite]

I'd appreciate if you'd place a link back to my site using the following HTML link and description:

[link information snipped]

Just cut and paste the above HTML code into your site.

If you'd like the description of your site modified or if you have any other cross-promotion ideas just drop me a line.

Best regards,

Steve Crooks

[spammerwebsite][spammeremail]

Now, I have no problem with webmasters asking for link exchanges; with one provision...if you're going to ask me for a link exchange, have the courtesy to visit my website first! How do I know he didn't visit my website? Because if he had he would have known that I don't even have a links page.

No, this spammer, along with all his spamming cronies, just found my listing by running a spambot through dmoz, or some other directory. No human visitor ever looked at my site to consider whether it would be appropriate to ask for a link exchange.

But that's not the funny part. Here's the funny part. I recently got a "follow-up" email to one of these spams. and it said, in essence, "Hey, you didn't reciprocate our link! We're going to have to remove your from our directory if you don't give us a link back!"

Ooooooh! I'm quaking in my boots. Let's see...if I don't link to this trashy domain that's so desperate for traffic that they're spamming everyone, they're going to remove my link. And how much will my site traffic suffer as a result? NONE! Remember...the fact that they're spamming everyone tells us that they have no traffic of their own. So how exactly will losing my link hurt me?